A 32-year-old man accused of raping an 85-year-old woman is in custody and will appear in court later this month, according to the Prince William County Police Department (PWCPD).
This man has a long criminal history, which may have kept this woman from being victimized in the first place.
According to Prince William County Police, 32-year-old Benjamin Dinarte broke into an assisted living facility in Manassas via an unsecured rear door and entered the room of an 85-year-old female resident. Investigators believe he sexually assaulted her there.
According to investigators, the assisted care home is named Fairmont Barclay House.
Dinarte is now facing charges of rape, abduction, object sexual penetration, and burglary.
Dinarte was detained two days before the attack for reportedly hitting his two young sons.
According to their mother’s statement to the court, Dinarte was calling them terrible names, hitting one of his kids many times, attempting to choke the other, and banging their heads on a chair.
She claimed he then walked into the kitchen and took a knife.
Dinarte was charged with domestic assault and battery in connection with this case.
However, court records show that a magistrate released him on bond on June 18th.
According to the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Virginia General Assembly approved legislation in 2021 to remove the system that permitted a suspect to be jailed only on a charge.
If Dinarte had been held in custody rather than released after being arrested for abusing his children, the 85-year-old assisted living resident would not have been attacked.
However, these were not Dinarte’s first severe arrests in Prince William County.
According to court filings, Dinarte had a babysitter come to his house in 2017 to pick up his children so he could meet his expectant wife at the hospital after she went into delivery.
When the woman arrived, Dinarte sexually attacked her.
Dinarte was charged with three counts of sexual battery and kidnapping in connection with this case.
The kidnapping charge, which is a felony, was withdrawn.
He only spent two months in jail and received a suspended sentence for sexual battery.
And that isn’t all.
Dinarte was cleared of grand larceny and burglary charges in 2014, according to court documents. Dinarte’s grand larceny and grand larceny of a handgun charges were dropped in Prince William County in 2011.